Two rare birds escape

ParrotDog Brewing is on a roll

It won a swag of awards at the Australian International Beer Awards in May, including the Champion Small International Brewery Trophy. It won the prestigious and spray-painted Golden Gumboots at Malthouse’s West Coat IPA Challenge in July. There are probably others they’ve left under the stairs and forgotten about.

Along with building trophy cabinets, ParrotDog has been busy with its RareBird series of one-off releases. The two latest RareBirds are available now – Ruru Black IPA and Tieke Dunkelweizen.

Ruru celebrates the ruru/morepork, our last remaining native owl. This bird is not so rare – there can be few New Zealanders who haven’t heard it call in the night. This night bird with its haunting whistle, silent flight and large eyes is held by Maori as a link to the spirit world, and can be a bad omen. Ruru Black IPA is scary drinkable for its 7.7% and could easily pass for a session beer. It looks darker than it tastes, with no hint of dark-grain char. My spirit guide predicts several will pass silently in the night.

Tieke celebrates the tieke/saddleback, a rare bird with a distinctive chattering call. This is conservation success story – once confined to two island sanctuaries, the tieke is now listed as 'Near Threatened’, which is a good thing only because it was once near extinct. Tieke Dunkelweizen (4.8%) is an approachable interpretation of a complex style. It is a deep, hazy red-brown, with distinctive wheat beer characteristics combined with toffee and chocolate. Savour for dessert.

If you want to spot these RareBirds (and 16 other beers), visit ParrotDog/Hillside Kitchen’s pop-up bar Nice, from today to 14 August at the ParrotDog brewery, 29 Vivian Street, Wellington, or at the brewery’s stand at Beervana.